Fong Rips Boxer, Defends Donation / Flap over gift to anti-gay group

Published 4:00 am, Monday, October 26, 1998

1998-10-26 04:00:00 PDT San Diego -- With his poll numbers eroding, Republican Senate candidate Matt Fong launched a weekend assault on incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, but also found himself defending a $50,000 donation to the anti-gay Traditional Values Coalition.

Fong acknowledged making the "charitable donation" last spring using funds left over from his 1994 campaign for state treasurer. But he said it was intended to help change that group's more extreme positions.

"What lets me be a unifier and not a divider is my ability to work with different groups, even with those who would be considered extreme by some people," Fong said.

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The Orange County coalition and its founder, the Rev. Lou Sheldon, are opposed to abortion and family planning and have called for quarantining people with AIDS to stop the spread of the disease.

Sheldon also led the successful effort to persuade Republican Senate leaders to torpedo the nomination of James Hormel, a gay San Francisco businessman and philanthropist, as ambassador to Luxem-

bourg. The minister accused Hormel of working to spread an "immoral homosexual agenda."

With just eight days remaining in the hard fought race, Fong had hoped to portray Boxer as too divisive and too liberal to be effective in the Senate. But the revelations about Fong's financial ties to Sheldon underscored the difficulty he is having countering charges that he is too extreme for California.

Fong said his donation was earmarked for a poll leading toward an initiative that would ban same- sex marriages in California, an effort Fong supports.

"Lou Sheldon is an old friend, although I disagree with him on many issues," Fong said. "When I was assured that it would only be used for defense of traditional marriage, I gave him the money."

A spokesman for Boxer criticized Fong's explanation. "This is just another confirmation of what we have been seeing all along," said Roy Behr. "Matt Fong is not a moderate. He is a supporter of extremists who are opposed to allowing personal freedom."

Behr also dismissed Fong's contention that he wants to work with a variety of groups.

"Using that logic, I imagine he'll be giving a $50,000 contribution to the ACLU any day now."

The donation uproar came as Fong unleashed a weekend offensive against Boxer, characterizing her as an out-of-touch radical whose re-election would threaten California and the nation. With new polls showing Boxer edging into the lead, Fong lashed out at Boxer with a personal bitterness new to the campaign.

The November 3 election "is a referendum on (Boxer's) extremism, divisiveness and hypocrisy," Fong told supporters at a Del Mar fund-raiser yesterday. "She is a left-wing radical with a resume . . . laced with examples of her appealing to the lowest common denominator with fear, distortion and half-truths. It is a resume lacking in leadership, principle and effectiveness."

Boxer's votes have weakened the national defense, hurt public education, coddled criminals and harmed working families and seniors by raising taxes, Fong said.

"After six years in the Senate, the best she can do is say, 'Matt Fong is a nasty guy,' not talk about her own record," Fong said.

Part of the credit for Boxer's rise in poll numbers can be attributed to the Democrat's multimillion dollar television campaign, which has been hammering Fong relentlessly for his conservative stands on environmental regulation, gun control and abortion.

The revelations about Fong's relationship with Sheldon appear to give Boxer another boost, but Fong sought to play that down yesterday as he campaigned in Southern California.

"People gave me money because they support my values," Fong said. "I've said all along that I support traditional marriage."

Fong's $50,000 donation came from money raised over the past four years for his anticipated re- election campaign for state treasurer. Because of stricter federal campaign laws, money raised for his state race could not be transferred to his federal Senate campaign.

Fong also gave $25,000 from his state campaign account to the nonpartisan Southwest Voters Project for voter education and another $25,000 to a group backing a proposed initiative that would require parental consent before a minor could receive an abortion.

Fong has been criticized in recent months because many of the most generous contributors to his state campaign account were developers, lawyers and others with applications pending before the Tax Credit Allocation Committee, which Fong chairs.

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